Local man takes down drag-racing star

Posted on Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 9:00 am

“Orange Crush” owner Mr. L.J. and driver Troy “Short Dog” Henderson.

Star of Discover Channel’s “Street Outlaws: New Orleans,” Kye Kelley.

Colonial Beach Dragway held a Lobster Festival and Grudge Match (driver’s lineup at the starting line and the fastest to the end of the 1/8-mile track is the winner) shootout on Saturday, July 15. They invited Kye Kelley from the television show “Street Outlaws: New Orleans” that runs on the Discovery Network at 9 p.m. Mondays.

Kye Kelley made his mark, when he went to Oklahoma to race on the original Street Outlaws show. He (Kelley) beat the “fastest street cars in the country” for a big bag of money, and his spinoff was created a few years later. Kye Kelley said, “I had no idea that any of this was going to happen. I just like driving my car.”

His opponent for the no-time Grudge Match was Troy “Short Dog” Henderson driving the “Orange Crush.”

Troy Henderson is a local favorite at CB Dragway; he is known to be one of the best drivers in the area. Troy Henderson said, “He was contacted by his promoter for 15 years, Derrick Purvis, about racing Kye Kelley in the grudge match, and he was happy to do so.” Troy said, “Since its grudge racing they don’t display the times that way they’ll continue to get races. I know that I can win. He’s in my home town, and I’ve been working on leaving when the tree lights for as long as I’ve been racing. I’ll work on it again when I get him (Kye Kelley) on the track.” “We’ll make a run to get some new data, and shake the car down. We have data stored for all times of the day, so we’ll make good passes.”

Kye Kelley arrived at CB dragway, took his car “The Shocker” out of the trailer, made a few adjustments, and hit the track with a faultless pass. Troy Henderson in the Orange Crush followed his down the track in the same fashion. Kye Kelley stated, “We left Indianapolis, Indiana last night about 1:48a.m., and have been driving all night to get here to run today.” “This is my first-time racing in Virginia. The only thing I knew about Colonial Beach was it is on the coast, so it was a long way from Indianapolis.”